


The Three Days of Christmas

by GokuGirl



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Christmas, Drama, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-01-08
Updated: 2006-01-08
Packaged: 2018-04-10 22:47:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4410833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GokuGirl/pseuds/GokuGirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the Z-Senshi and their families come to the Capsule Corp. for Christmas, an ordinary get-together becomes something no one will likely forget anytime soon. My 2005 Christmas fanfic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Three Days of Christmas

**Part 1: Home for the Holidays**  
  
  
Quite a few years had gone by since Buruma had run into Son Goku in the forest and entered into a friendship that would take her places she had never, ever imagined. She had grown up, entered into a career that added greatly to the wealth her father had left for her in his will and had two irritating-at-times-but-still-wonderful children who now had children of their own. She also had a live-in nuisance named Vegeta who was not her lover and had never really been.  
  
Vegeta (or His Highness, Saiya-jin no Ouji as he preferred to be called), informed her during their many altercations that he didn't want to be around her or live in her house or eat her disgusting food. Whenever she asked him why he still lived with her, he never had an answer. For many years she had assumed that the reason he still lived with her was that he secretly loved her and his strict upbringing prevented him from showing or telling her. As the years wore on, however, she stopped believing that. For one, he had never touched her again after Bura was born, romantically or otherwise. In fact, she constantly marvelled that Bura had been created at all.  
  
For another, she knew for sure that his interest was directed towards someone else.  
  
At first she'd fought against the knowledge that he didn't love her and never would. She had also fought against the knowledge that he was in love with one of her best friends... who, by the way, had no idea. Not that she was a bigot or anything, but it had been hard to believe that a man as butch as Vegeta could be...  
  
Well, that was neither here nor there. She had guests due to arrive soon and Christmas was no time to be depressed. In theory, anyway.  
  
Buruma carefully sifted through the expensive jewelry in the hand-carved mahogany box her mother had given her for her twentieth birthday along with a silk kimono patterned in the long-lost Briefs family crest. She held up a pair of teardrop-shaped pearl earrings to her ear to see they looked good with her blouse, which they didn't (in her opinion). Over the years her fashion sense had become bland and motherly of its own free will. She longed for the days when she could wear hot pants and halter dresses, but the thought of her own 63-year-old body in something like that made her shudder.  
  
She had chosen a long-sleeved pale pink blouse the kind she routinely wore as the president of Capsule Corporation. It was paired with plain black slacks and matching pink shoes. Her hand hovered over a plain pearl necklace in her jewelry box before she lifted it out and placed it beside the pearl earrings. She looked like an old woman and could do absolutely nothing to change that.  
  
No one had arrived at her home as of yet, but she expected Bura and Liam to arrive with their son, Geoff. Her daughter had moved to Australia as soon as she'd graduated from college with a bachelor degree in Zoology. Six months later Buruma had gotten an e-mail from her about her pregnancy and two months after that she'd flown down to Sydney to attend her wedding. Personally, Buruma thought that she had made several big mistakes, but it wasn't her life.  
  
Twenty minutes later the caterers showed up with the food that would sustain her guests for the few days they'll be staying in her home. As much as she didn't want to admit it, she really  _couldn't_  cook and she even refused to eat her own cooking.  
  
"Please place that on the table and I'll store it later," she instructed the small group of uniformed people. "Vegeta!" she called loud enough for him to hear in the family room. "If you touch any of this food, I'll castrate you! I mean it!"  
  
"Onna, the day I let you get close to me with a sharp object will be the day I deserve to die anyway."  
  
"You just remember what I said, Vegeta!" she screamed. Then, smiling at the caterers, she said, "Thank you very much."  
  
After escorting them out of the door, she grabbed a duster from the hall closet and began to go over the surfaces yet again. Though she had a robot maid, she didn't trust it to clean every single thing. Usually she was too busy to care, but she'd mostly shut down Capsule Corp. operations for the holiday so there was nothing but time on her hands. After carefully dusting the public rooms and the guest rooms that she had allocated, she brought out the vacuum and went over the carpet. When she got to the family room she made sure to spend a lot of time in the front of the television that Vegeta was trying to watch.  
  
"You are a bitch," Vegeta hissed at her.  
  
"I know," she smirked.  
  
Half past four in the afternoon, the doorbell rang again. She knew without looking that her daughter had finally come home. One could only hope that she hadn't brought Liam with her.  
  
"Get the door!" she shouted from the kitchen. She had been trying for the past ten minutes to figure out the heating directions for the chicken dish, but following directions had never been her strong suit. "Cooking is stupid anyway," she muttered to herself.  
  
She heard the front door open and Bura let out a happy squeal that probably caused Vegeta to wince (she smiled at the thought). Amongst her quickly spoken words she heard Liam's much deeper voice remind his son not to touch anything without permission. Buruma rolled her eyes when she heard this. It might have been awhile, but she'd had a two-year-old around before. Geoff wasn't likely to listen to his father for very long and that was why she'd kiddie-proofed the public rooms the day before.  
  
Liam was a quiet accountant who Buruma thought was pretty spineless and weak, but he had helped to produce a very sedate and happy little boy with her daughter. Geoff shared Bura's blue hair that she shared with her own mother, but he had his father's brown eyes, which made for an odd color combination.  
  
"Okaasan!" Bura called after five minutes of babbling happily at her father.  
  
"I'm in here!"  
  
Her daughter entered with a worried look on her face. "You're in the kitchen."  
  
Buruma frowned at her. "It's not like I can blow it up just by being in here, you know."  
  
"I wouldn't be surprised if you did," she said very quietly but her mother still heard. Smiling brightly when Buruma's frown became darker, she asked, "Do you need any help?"  
  
"Actually, yes. Can you heat this up while I set out a tray of appetizers?" She indicated the large aluminum foil pan on the counter. Bura sighed when her mother's back was turned and set the oven timer appropriately. Buruma emerged from the fridge with a tray of assorted cheeses and meats and crackers.  
  
"I hope you have more than that because you're feeding Saiya-jin tonight."  
  
"Of course I have more. I've lived for eighteen years with you, 21 with your brother, and 37 with the bastard, remember?"  
  
"Papa's not a bastard, Okaasan." It was a tired argument and one she knew she would never win.  
  
"How about you tell him to stop acting like one, then."  
  
"It's a sad thing when you can't remember a single day when your parents  _didn't_  fight, you know."  
  
Buruma sighed sadly. "I know, honey, and you have your father to blame for that." Her daughter's response was a frustrated sigh.  
  
The Briefs matriarch carried her tray into the family room where Vegeta hadn't moved an inch, his small body taking up all of the space on the love seat. Liam sat uncomfortably on the sofa nearby while Geoff kept himself busy with a toy.  
  
"Anyone hungry?" Buruma asked, sitting down the tray on the coffee table.  
  
Vegeta glanced over at her. "Did you prepare this?"  
  
"Iie."  
  
"Good." He reached over and grabbed a handful of food. "I was almost hungry enough to risk my life eating your food."  
  
"Vegeta!" she yelled before she could stop herself. Geoff looked up from his toy truck curiously and she fought down her anger so as not to scare her grandson. "I'll be in the kitchen with Bura if you need me," she said tightly instead of the epithets that had been on the tip of her tongue.  
  
"I'll warn everyone." Buruma grabbed a pillow from the nearby couch and threw it at him. He batted it away without even looking at it. "Stupid Saiya-jin and their unnatural senses," she grumbled.  
  
Once he was fairly sure that his mother-in-law was out of earshot, Liam tried to begin a conversation with the father-in-law that scared him more than a little bit. "Uh, Vegeta, how have you been?"  
  
At first he wasn't going to say anything, but then a good idea came to him. Vegeta turned his head and smiled almost pleasantly at Liam which inspired far more fear than his standard glare. "My plan to achieve world domination is coming along nicely," he said casually. "I've already poisoned every major river in the world. The ningen should be feeling the effects of my virus very soon."  
  
Liam looked as if he was caught between laughing and gasping. "A-are you serious?"  
  
Snorting, the Saiya-jin no Ouji said, "Iie. Why? Did you think that I was?" He laughed mockingly. "Some people will just believe anything, won't they?" His son-in-law fell silent, his cheeks tinged red.  
  
The doorbell rang again and gave Liam an opportunity to escape further embarrassment. For a while, anyway. "I'll get it!" he called out, practically rushing to the front door.  
  
While he was gone, Geoff abandoned his truck and toddled over to where his grandfather lay. He had met him once before but he'd been so young that he didn't remember. Completely unafraid of Vegeta in a way that only small children could be, he reached out and touched his cheek. "Who you?" he asked.  
  
Vegeta stared at him, completely speechless for a moment. Then he wrapped one arm around the little boy and stood up, bringing the child with him. "I'm your mother's father." When the confusion on Geoff's face wasn't cleared up he simplified things. "Your  _grandfather_." He grimaced as he said it.  
  
"Grandda."  
  
He grimaced again. "Can you say Ve-ge-ta, Geoff?"  
  
"Vegga."  
  
Sighing, he said, "Good enough."  
  
"I can't believe it."  
  
Vegeta spun around to face his son (who stood in the doorway with his back against the frame). He looked as if he'd been there for quite some time. Geoff giggled as his grandfather spun him around then beamed as he saw Trunks. "O-o-ojichan!" he shouted.  
  
"You've been working on it, haven't you?" Trunks said as he took him out of his father's arms.  
  
"Yeah!"  
  
Vegeta raised an eyebrow. "You've been teaching him Japanese?"  
  
"Hai, Papa. Bura isn't doing it so I thought I would. I call them about once a week on the vidphone. That's why he knows who I am, right, Geoff?" He tickled him on the stomach and he giggled again. What he didn't say to his father was that  _he_  should call the Briefs-Irwin household sometime.  
  
Trunks' current girlfriend came in carrying a little girl younger than Geoff with a ten-year-old little girl walking beside her who shared Trunks' lavender hair and his bright blue eyes. "Hi!" she chirped to anyone within hearing range.  
  
Geoff waved at her exaggeratedly. "Hi!"  
  
"Alright, Munchkin," Trunks said to his nephew as he lowered him to the ground. "Go play with Anastasia and Maiya for a little while, okay?"  
  
"'kay."  
  
Mishiko set her daughter down on her feet and gently sent her off towards the other kids with a pat on the butt. The 1 ½-year-old stumbled a little but regained her balance quickly.  
  
Trunks' oldest daughter had another mother who he'd broken up with when Anastasia was five. Everyone had been surprised that he'd requested custody of her, but her mother had given up almost without a fight when confronted with the Briefs family lawyers. Now he was with another young woman who he'd also produced a child with. On the outside they seemed like the perfect couple, but things were falling apart much in the same way they'd fallen apart with Lia.  
  
He didn't know who to talk about his problems with. Normally his first choice would have been Goten, but that was out of the question in this case. There were just certain things you couldn't tell certain people, especially when they played a large role (whether they knew it or not).  
  
Mishiko wandered into the kitchen where Buruma was attempting to prepare dinner and Bura was averting disaster, leaving Trunks alone in the hall with his father. Vegeta took one look at the expression on his son's face and said, "You're going to break up with her, aren't you."  
  
"Yeah," he admitted. "How did you know?"  
  
"I know because she's not the one you think you're in love with. And she's irritating. Very, very irritating."  
  
Trunks thought about her anal-retentiveness, her mild obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the fact that she was often too harsh on his kids, Anastasia especially. "Yeah," he said again. "And you don't even live with her. Do you know that she once washed the same plate for an hour because she swore it was covered in cancer-causing antibodies?"  
  
His father let out a loud bark of laughter. "She really has to go!"  
  
"You've got that right."  
  
Mishiko herself peeked out into the hallway to see what was so amusing. Trunk wiped his face blank so quickly he felt like he'd gone over it with a huge rubber eraser. "Hi, honey," he said, his mouth stretching into a huge fake smile. As soon as she went back into the kitchen, he pretended to stick his finger down his throat followed by a pantomime of himself throwing up.  
  
"When is everyone else planning to get here?" he asked as they re-entered the living room to help Liam watch over the kids. At least, that had been  _Trunks'_  plan. Vegeta just wanted to watch another movie.  
  
"How the hell am I supposed to know? They're not  _my_  friends."  
  
"And whose fault is that? If you were only a little bit nicer to them..."  
  
"You sound like the onna!"  
  
Trunks shuddered. "In that case, be as evil to them as you want to be. Threaten their lives while you're at it. Or the lives of their children."  
  
"Threaten...  _What_?" Liam was starting to look afraid again.  
  
"Nothing," Trunks and Vegeta said in unison with identical expressions of false innocence. Neither of them could stand Liam either: it was one of the few things they agreed on.  
  
Dinner was called a short while later and it was only the extended Briefs family around the table. When Bura inquired about everyone else, her mother informed them that Goku and ChiChi were coming after breakfast; Gohan, Videl, and Pan after lunch; and Goten sometime in the late afternoon. Kuririn and Juuhachi-gou planned to drop in (as did Yamucha and his almost-wife) but she didn't have a set time for either couple.  
  
"Great," Vegeta said sarcastically. "There goes the leftovers."  
  
"Just the leftovers?" Trunks asked. "I think it's more like 'there goes all the food in the entire house'!"  
  
"Oi!" Buruma said above the laughter of the two of them and Bura. "I  _did_  plan for them, you know! There'll be plenty for all of us!"  
  
Later, after everyone had adjourned to the family room and the robo cleaning crew was clearing away the dishes, Buruma called the catering company. "This is Briefs Buruma-san and I'll like to place another order." Pause. "Yes, I know it's very close to Christmas, but I'm willing to pay extra." Another pause. "How does 120,000 yen [about $1,031] sound to you?" A very short pause. "Thank you very much! You'll get your extra money if you get my food here by ten a.m. Have a happy holiday."  
  
"Take that, Vegeta," she said to herself in satisfaction.

* * *

**Part 2: I Saw Grandpa Kissing Santa Claus (Underneath the Mistletoe Last Night)**  
  
  
An unexpected crisis came up at work and Buruma had to go in and assist the skeleton crew she had on duty. She planned to only be gone for a few hours and didn't want to return to a home in a sad state of disrepair so she left a note on the fridge door stating this explicitly, right at the level where Vegeta's eye's would be when he opened the refrigerator to forage for food.  
  
When the Saiya-jin came downstairs, his stomach rumbling, he completely missed the note by opening the freezer instead of the fridge. He pulled out a box of frozen waffles and proceeded to fix himself breakfast. It wasn't until Anastasia came downstairs that he discovered that Buruma wasn't at home.  
  
"Ohayo, Ojiichan!" Anastasia said cheerfully. She walked across the room to the fridge and was just about to open it when she saw the note. Her finger followed the lines of neat writing slowly as she read it. "Obaasan isn't here, Ojiichan. She went to work."  
  
"Call me Vegeta," he said absently. The information about Buruma went through one ear and out the other.  
  
"I can't call you that! My Mamas would be mad."  
  
"I'll speak to Mishiko, and Lia if I have to. Don't worry about it."  
  
His granddaughter joined him at the table with a bottle of orange juice, which she set down on the table. Then she grabbed a chair and dragged it over to the counters. Vegeta watched all of this with a interested look on his face. "What are you doing?"  
  
"I can't reach the glasses. Or the bowls." She made a face. "Or the cereal."  
  
"At least you can reach the spoons." When his joke fell completely flat, Vegeta sighed and got up help her. "Let me do it. If you fall and break your neck, your mothers would kill me."  
  
Ana began to smile. "What about Papa?"  
  
"I would kill him if he even tried."  
  
"Don't do that!" she said with a disapproving look on her face. Ana looked so stern that Vegeta almost smiled, but caught himself just in time.  
  
"Fine," he said, "I won't."  
  
"Promise?"  
  
He started to say something, but the serious look on Ana's face stopped him cold. "Okay, I promise. Now go sit down at the table."  
  
Vegeta couldn't believe he was bothering to fix someone else breakfast. Worser still, he still couldn't believe he was a grandfather even though he'd become one nearly eleven years ago. He figured that it was due to the fact that he hardly ever saw his grandchildren. Even Trunks, who still lived in Japan, rarely came to visit.  
  
Was there something about him that made Trunks and Bura reluctant to expose their children to his presence? Well, other than his natural surliness and hostility, of course. "Ana?"  
  
"Hmm?" she asked, still chewing a mouthful of Frosted Flakes.  
  
"Why don't your parents bring you over more often?"  
  
The ten-year-old shrugged. "I dunno. Why don't you ask? I want to come over a lot. Maiya's just a baby, but I think she likes being here, too. Mama and Papa fight a lot about it."  
  
"Yet another strike against that bitch Mishiko," Vegeta muttered to himself. He looked up quickly as soon as he said it to see if Anastasia had heard him, but she was contentedly munching away on her cereal.  
  
By the time everyone else came downstairs, they were finished with their breakfast and playing cards in the living room. Vegeta had gotten it into his head that teaching Ana how to play poker was a good lesson in facial muscle control.  
  
"Your mouth twitched again," Trunks could hear him say. "I know you have good cards now."  
  
"This is hard!" she whined in response.  
  
"But just think about it: if you master the poker face, then you can get away with anything."  
  
Trunks stepped into the room, stopping beside his father, and folded his arms across his chest. "Papa, what are you teaching her?"  
  
With an innocent expression on his face, Vegeta said, "Good sportsmanship."  
  
"Oh really?"  
  
"Yeah. When she loses, she'll figure out how to do so gracefully."  
  
His son let out a loud laugh. "You think she can learn that from  _you_?"  
  
Laying down his cards, Vegeta asked, "What's wrong with me?"  
  
"Papa, when you weren't the first one to achieve the level of Super Saiya-jin, you took off for space and nearly killed yourself trying to become a Super Saiya-jin. And there hadn't even been a competition in the first place!"  
  
"Well, I-"  
  
"And don't let me get started on this eternal conflict you have with Goku-san. So what if he's stronger than you! He's never thrown it in your face!"  
  
Ana watched this all with a fascinated look on her face. "You're a bad loser, Ojiichan?" she asked.  
  
"'A bad loser'?" Trunks repeated incredulously. "Sweetie, your grandfather is the worst loser in the history of the universe. If he's not first in something, he acts like it's the end of the world."  
  
"I do not," Vegeta said, his mouth contorting into what could definitely be called a pout. When Trunks and Ana started to giggle, he realized what he was doing and immediately stopped. "Whatever. Are you going let us play in peace or not?"  
  
Trunks took a seat on the carpet at the end of the coffee table. "I think I'll play with you two just to make sure you aren't teaching my daughter how to get away with murder."  
  
"Of course I'm not, Trunks. Why would I do something like that?" Vegeta gathered up the cards and shuffled them quickly. Then he slapped them down on the table in front of his son and said, "Cut 'em."  
  
"You'd do it because it would be amusing to you. I bet you were a terror as a kid."  
  
Vegeta cocked his head to the side as he regarded him. "Look who's talking."  
  
"Papa was a bad kid?" Ana asked, arranging the new cards in her hand.  
  
"'A bad kid'? Ana, your father was the worst kid in the history of the universe. He spent his time trying to give the onna gray hair with Goten right beside him."  
  
Ana knew what "onna" meant because she'd asked her father a while ago when she'd heard Vegeta call her grandmother that, but she had no idea who Goten was. He had never come over to their home and she had never met him elsewhere. To hear that he had been her father's friend was very interesting. "Who's Goten?" she asked. "How come I've never met him before?"  
  
Vegeta's mouth dropped open, then snapped shut with an audible sound. "You've never met Goten?! Trunks, why hasn't she ever met your best friend?"  
  
"Papa, not now," he hissed.  
  
"No, we're going to talk about this right now. When you were brats, you two were joined at the hip. How long have you been ignoring his existence?" It sounded suspiciously like he was standing up for Goten, but he would deny that to his very death. "Does anyone else know about this?"  
  
He sighed and resigned himself to an uncomfortable conversation. "Come on, Papa. Ana, we'll be right back."  
  
"Can I come with you?" she asked hopefully.  
  
"No, this is grown-up talk."  
  
She placed her cards down on the coffee table and began to pout about the unfairness of being ten. The two adults left the room and entered the kitchen.  
  
"Goku-san probably knows," he answered. "Goten tells him everything."  
  
"You don't tell  _me_  everything," his father pointed out.  
  
"Well, it's different with Goku-san. He's a really good listener and you're just... not."  
  
"I can listen!" he practically shouted. "I'm listening right now!"  
  
"And I'm very amazed."  
  
Vegeta opened his mouth to launch into a tirade when the doorbell interrupted him. "I'll get it," he grumbled, "but you better still be here when I get back. I'm not done with you."  
  
His son saluted mockingly. "Sir, yes sir!"  
  
Leveling him with one of his patented glares, he said, "You're not too big for me to take outside and beat the shit out of. Just remember that."  
  
He was afraid to see who was at the door and hoped it wasn't who he thought it was. He couldn't remember what Buruma had said the night before about when everyone was due to arrive because he always found something more interesting to pay attention to whenever she opened her mouth.  
  
Unfortunately, he could hear voices before he even opened the door. ChiChi was instructing Goku on how to behave like he was her son instead of her husband, which said a lot about how little she thought of his competence as an adult.  
  
"You have to use common sense, Goku," she told him. "Be on your best behavior while we're here."  
  
"Hai, ChiChi."  
  
"Don't stuff a large amount of food into your mouth at one time and remember not to talk with it full or chew with it open."  
  
"Hai, ChiChi."  
  
"And don't get into another argument with Vegeta. It's Christmas, after all."  
  
Instead of simply agreeing with whatever his wife said this time around, Goku corrected her. "I don't get into arguments with Vegeta, ChiChi. He gets into them with _me_."  
  
"Whatever you say, dear."  
  
Vegeta suddenly opened the door and startled ChiChi but not Goku since he'd known Vegeta had been standing there the moment he'd stepped into the hallway. "Meri Kurimasu, Vegeta," he said amiably. The former prince merely grunted before stepping away from the door and walking back towards the kitchen. Before he'd gotten too far, ChiChi reached out and grabbed his arm. Only she would dare to touch him without his permission.  
  
"Aren't you going to take our coats or tell us to make ourselves at home?" And only she would expect him to be a good host.  
  
"No, I'm going to tell you to remove your hand from my person before I remove it for you. Permanently."  
  
ChiChi shifted so that she was standing toe-to-toe with the irate Saiya-jin, but did not remove her hand. "You don't scare me. You never have."  
  
"Then you are far more stupid than Kakarotto could ever be."  
  
Neither of them would back down of their own free will. It took Goku's interference to end the confrontation. "ChiChi, how about we go watch TV or something?" He gently took her hand and pried her fingers from Vegeta's arm. Before she could begin to scream at him, he guided her into the living room.  
  
"Damn onna," Vegeta said loud enough for her to hear. "Worse than the other one."  
  
A few seconds later Goku returned to the hallway to put away their coats and to retrieve the bag of presents and the small overnight bag they had brought. "Do you have to do that all the time?" he asked.  
  
"What else should I do? I'm not going to become as pathetic as you are, Kakarotto. Saiya-jin aren't meant to be nice and thoughtful." He shuddered at the thought of himself becoming just like the other man.  
  
"Why not? I'm just fine, aren't I?"  
  
"On Vegeta-sei, you would be considered mentally ill. On Chikyuu-sei, you're just considered mentally retarded." He pushed past him and walked away without another word.  
  
Goku watched him go, a sad look on his face. Every year he hoped they could become more than constant rivals and occasional allies. He didn't know exactly what type of relationship he was looking for, but he thought that friendship would be a good place to start.  
  
"Goku!" ChiChi called. "What's taking you so long?"  
  
He quickly hung up their coats and grabbed the gifts. "Coming, ChiChi."  
  
If only he could have realized that before he'd married ChiChi.  
  


***

  
By the time Buruma returned, the house was full. Someone had inserted a Christmas CD into the stereo in the family room and Bura was trying to encourage everyone to sing along to it. Only the kids were paying any attention to her.  
  
"Time to trim the tree, everyone!" Buruma said as she entered the room holding a box. Trunks and Gohan entered behind her with two more boxes. The eight-foot-tall imported douglas fir sat in front of the large picture window just waiting to be covered in lights, tinsel, and really expensive hand-blown glass ornaments. Trunks lifted one with an angel imprint out of the box and examined it with a skeptical expression.  
  
"Are you sure you want to use these? There are little kids around, you know."  
  
"They're pretty, Trunks, and I don't want any cheap plastic or foil ornaments on  _my_  tree."  
  
"By the time my kids and Bura's kids leave, they're not going to be anything but pretty shards."  
  
Gohan set his box down on the coffee table and began to pull out strings of lights. "Shouldn't we wait until everyone else shows up? Pan said she would be over in about an hour. I called before we left home."  
  
"In a few hours I'm going to have to start dinner and I want to be here to experience the tree trimming."  
  
"No, I think we should wait," Vegeta said. "Anything to distract her from creating poison." She threw a throw pillow at him, which he easily dodged. "Why haven't you learned yet that you aren't fast enough to surprise me? You're just making yourself look stupid." Almost before he'd gotten the words out, another pillow came flying his way and this one impacted with his face.  
  
Goku grinned at him. "Well,  _I'm_  fast enough." Everyone tried desperately not to laugh, knowing full well that do to so was to invite Vegeta to start ranting and raving.  
  
The small Saiya-jin grit his teeth and slammed the pillow down onto the couch beside him. "I. Hate. You."  
  
"No you don't."  
  
Despite the irritated Saiya-jin growling in the corner, everyone was having a good time. Pan made it over sooner than her father had expected, bringing the boyfriend that neither of her parents had known existed. When she walked into the living room with Taji she instantly got the attention of most everyone in the room.  
  
Vegeta had been the one to break the silence after introductions had been made. "Is it nighttime already?" he asked.  
  
Pan stared at him. "What?"  
  
"Is it nighttime? Count Dracula over there probably can't go out in the daytime without bursting into flame."  
  
"Vegeta!" Buruma immediately shouted.  
  
"No," Taji said, holding up his hand. "It's okay. I get that a lot."  
  
Taji, to put it simply, was as pale as death. He probably wouldn't have looked that way if he hadn't been wearing a black long sleeved shirt and black pants. He wore his black hair long past his shirt collar and tied back with what looked like a black ribbon which was a style that had never been popular in Japan outside of an anime. To make matters worse, he was about a foot taller than Pan so he appeared to loom over her all of the time.  
  
Videl grabbed her daughter by the arm and proceeded to drag her out of the room. "May I speak to you for a moment, Pan?"  
  
"Kaasan, what-" The rest of her words faded into the growing distance.  
  
"I assure you that I'm not a vampire," Taji said after no one else spoke or went back to what they'd been doing before he and Pan had entered the room. "If you want me to prove that I'm human like the rest of you, I will."  
  
"No, that's okay," Bura said with a smile. "Come on, minna! Let's get back to work! Taji, you can help me with this side if you want."  
  
He returned her gesture. "Thank you, I believe that I will."  
  
Everything went smoothly from that point on. Slowly everyone warmed to Taji and they all discovered that he was an intelligent, outgoing person who bore little resemblance to the devil-worshipping sociopath they'd assumed him to be. Even Vegeta had stopped seeing him as a circus reject. By the time dinner was served, the tree had been trimmed within an inch of its life and was sparkling so brightly from the hundreds of twinkle lights and yards of tinsel that you were nearly blinded when you looked at it.  
  
"I bet you could see that thing from space," Trunks commented as they all stood back and admired their handiwork.  
  
Buruma shuddered. "Like we need more aliens showing up here. In fact, there's one I really wish would leave." She pointedly looked at Vegeta as she said this and he ignored her, as per usual.  
  
They were sitting down to dinner when Goten finally showed up. He was alone save for a backpack and a box full of gifts that he settled beneath the tree. He had smiled at Trunks the moment he'd caught his eye, but the other half Saiya-jin had quickly moved away from him, placing several people between them in the process. Goten had never figured out what he'd done to make Trunks not want to be around him anymore, but he'd hoped that he would have gotten over it. It had been a few years since they'd seen or spoken to each other, after all. Fortunately, Goten was good at hiding his true feelings, a skill he'd picked up from his father.  
  
Around the table there were several different conversations going on at once which helped to distract Vegeta from asking either Trunks or Goten about their relationship (or lack thereof). Trunks was incredibly grateful for this and did his best to help fill any silences. Goten, on the other hand, quietly ate his dinner and added only the occasional comment.  
  
Neither Bura nor Pan were distracted successfully, however. They each knew their respective family member almost as well as they knew themselves and they could see the sadness inside each of them as clear as day. Both young women catalogued their observations to share with each other later.  
  


***

  
Long after everyone had retired to their rooms for the night, a solitary figure made his way into the family room. He was dressed in a bright red polyester suit with white faux fur trim, a wide black belt was buckled around his waist. Shiny black rain boots encased his feet all the way up to mid-calf. Over one shoulder he carried a matching red polyester bag.  
  
The light from the moon shone in the window, light that was already being replaced by the coming dawn. It was after six o'clock in the morning and he knew that he didn't have long to deliver his presents to the tree before three small children would be up and ready to unwrap their gifts.  
  
Santa laid out each package with tender care and then took several steps back to see the full picture. There were some smaller presents stuck behind larger ones that would be hard to see, so he began to arrange them to his liking. Five minutes later he stood up and looked at the tree once more.  
  
  
  
Upstairs, Vegeta's eyes snapped open and he rolled out of bed. For most of his life he'd been waking up at dawn unless there had been circumstances preventing that such as a bout of unconsciousness or the occasional death. Before leaving his room, he slipped on a pair of black spandex exercise shorts that almost came down to his knees, not bothering with anything else because he figured that there was a pretty good chance that everyone else in the house was still asleep.  
  
He seriously contemplated running away until everyone left that afternoon. There was going to be gift-giving and caroling, two things that made him shudder with revulsion. And to top all of that, there were going to be overly-excited children running around like headless chickens.  
  
As he was heading past the family room on his way to the kitchen for something to drink, he heard noise coming from within. Vegeta froze then backtracked, peeking into the room as he did so. He saw a tall person in a bright red suit who was as physically fit as he was. To make the red-clothed-man's identity even clearer, there were stray strands of unruly black hair sticking out from beneath the pom-pommed red hat with white trim that sat upon his head.  
  
"Kakarotto, what the fuck are you doing?"  
  
Goku jumped away from the tree and promptly stumbled and fell backward onto the floor. He hadn't heard or sensed Vegeta come up behind him because he had been so preoccupied with fixing the Christmas tree just so.  
  
" _Besides_  demonstrating that you have no coordination whatsoever."  
  
"Buruma assigned me the task of dropping off the presents she'd hidden upstairs."  
  
"And you had to do so in a Santa Claus suit?"  
  
He rose to his feet and shrugged. "Why not? It's Christmas, after all."  
  
Vegeta shook his head and tried desperately not to smile. "Kakarotto, only you would find that an acceptable reason. Look, I'm going to get something to drink, maybe even fix up some breakfast. If you, uh, want to join me, I wouldn't hate it that much."  
  
The gentle Saiya-jin was able to stop himself from grinning, but his face still lit up with joy. "You really mean it?" he asked, walking closer unconsciously.  
  
"Yeah, I mean it. Being nice to you one day out of the year won't kill me." Vegeta smirked and turned to leave.  
  
"Hey, Vegeta?" Goku moved closer. "You're not such a bad guy, you know?"  
  
"No," he argued, turning back around. He was incredibly surprised to realize that he was only a few inches away from Goku's body. "I'm worse," he finished, swallowing reflexively.  
  
Goku leaned in so close that even air molecules were having a difficult time flowing between their faces. "Not to me. You've never been a bad guy to me." And then he was moving in even closer. Their lips barely brushed the first time in, but then Vegeta reached up and grabbed the back of Goku's head and pulled him to his mouth more firmly.  
  
And, in the distance, a shocked little girl looked on.

 

* * *

**Part 3: O Come, All Ye Hopeful**  
  
  
Anastasia had all but forgotten about what she'd seen earlier that morning once she had been able to get her hands on her presents. After a small sound of surprise had escaped from her mouth, she'd run back upstairs until she was sure that both her ojiichan and Santa Claus had left the family room. Once she'd heard footsteps in the hall followed by the sound of a door closing, she'd gotten out of bed again and shook her little sister awake.  
  
"Hey, Maiya!" she'd whispered. "Wake up, it's Christmas!"  
  
She'd done the same to her cousin and the three of them made their way downstairs to attack the gifts beneath the shiny tree.  
  
"Wait a minute, I'll hand you yours." Anastasia remembered to say that just in time. Neither of the two little kids with her could read so it was up to her to make sure that they didn't open someone else's presents.  
  
Soon there was a large pile of gifts in front of Geoff and Maiya while a smaller but no less magnificent pile was gathered in front of her. Geoff tore into the wrapping paper with relish. Maiya stared at one of the gifts in front of her intently for several long moments, unsure of where to start. Once Ana demonstrated how to unwrap her presents, she also had a great time ripping the bright wrapping paper off each of them.  
  
"Look! Look!" Geoff pulled on Ana's sleeve excitedly. "I gots a train!" Indeed it was a complete train set in a box almost larger than he was with plastic people, scenery, and buildings. There was even a mat for it all to sit on top of.  
  
"Who got you that?" she asked, honestly wondering.  
  
Geoff searched for the label that had been on the box. "S-A-N-T-A."  
  
"Santa?" Ana asked. She knew that there was no such person (something she was trying to resolve with what she'd seen earlier that morning), but didn't want to ruin things for either her cousin or her sister. "Oh, Santa gave you that."  
  
"Santa!" he cheered. "I was a good boy."  
  
"Uh huh."  
  
Then it was Maiya's turn to tug on her pajama top. "Ana, help." She help up the plastic package that her Licca doll[1] was trapped inside of.  
  
"Hold on," Ana said. "I'll find some scissors."  
  
While she didn't want to leave the two of them alone, she knew that Maiya would bug her half to death if she didn't free her doll from its plastic prison. After telling them not to destroy anything, she dashed off to the kitchen and began to search through the drawers. There were no scissors to be found.  
  
As it was still early, she didn't want to wake anyone up just to ask where she could find a pair of scissors. So she decided to use a knife instead. It didn't turn out to be one of her better ideas.  
  
Anastasia returned to the living room and took the package from her sister. Then she proceeded to try and wedge the point of the knife into a seam and pry the package open. When that didn't work, she then tried to tear open a hole. As she was doing so, the knife slipped a few times on the smooth plastic but she endured.  
  
Then disaster struck. When the knife slipped a fourth time, it made its way toward the index finger on her left hand and bit deeply into it. She stared at the blood that was rapidly obscuring the cut she'd made for a long moment in complete silence before letting loose a wail that could have awakened the dead. Picking up on her distress, Geoff and Maiya wailed along with her.  
  
It took less than a minute for the adults to run downstairs to see what was going on. After doing a quick survey of the room, Trunks ran over to his daughter and examined her finger. "Come on, Ana, I'll clean your finger off."  
  
"It hurts!" she cried, dropping the bloodied knife onto the floor.  
  
"Otousan knows and he'll make it all better."  
  
"There's so much blood," Buruma said. "I think you better take her to the hospital." At the word "hospital", Ana began to cry even harder.  
  
"I'm not sure yet," he said soothingly to his daughter while glaring at his mother. "You might be just fine with a band-aid and a kiss."  
  
"I seriously doubt that," was the addition from his father.  
  
When all of the blood was washed away, Trunks' worst fears were realized. Ana really  _did_  need to be taken to the emergency room. Taking a hand towel from the downstairs bathroom, he wrapped it around her hand and told her to keep pressure on it.  
  
"Can someone help her put on her shoes while I throw on some clothes?" he asked.  
  
"I'll do it," Buruma offered. "Come on, sweetie. Everything will be okay soon."  
  
Mishiko hadn't even bothered to take the time to check on Anastasia, instead going directly to her biological daughter Maiya who didn't have a scratch on her. Vegeta frowned when he saw this, but was undecided about whether or not he should tell his son. On one hand, Trunks already planned to break up with her. On the other, what she had done was pretty negligent and he had to wonder if she'd done anything like that while baby-sitting his eldest grandchild.  
  
Bura and Liam fussed over little Geoff whose tears were rapidly drying. "Ana'll be okay," he said confidently before plopping down on the floor to unwrap the rest of his gifts. If only everyone could have his faith.  
  
While everyone was busy either hovering over the kids or talking amongst themselves, Vegeta was the only one who saw the knife lying on the floor, appearing all-the-world to be harmless (save for the spots of blood on the blade). He picked it up and carried it into the kitchen where he proceeded to toss it into the sink.  
  
"Vegeta." His body stiffened when he heard  _that person_  address him. If there was anything he wished to avoid with all his heart and soul, it was speak to Son Goku about what had happened only hours before.  
  
"I have nothing to say to you." He was proud of himself for maintaining his frosty façade.  
  
"Onegai, Vegeta, you can't just forget what we shared. It was special." He had wanted to do that for a long time without even realizing it. It was like all of his questions had been answered with that one kiss.  
  
Vegeta could feel his resolve weakening. There was just something about Goku that destroyed his carefully-built defenses without the other man even trying very hard. "We can't talk about this now."  
  
"Well, when  _can_  we talk about it?"  
  
"I don't know, but I know it can't be  _now_!" He hands gripped the edge of the sink and he braced himself against it. "I don't know what I feel. It's too soon for me to know." He said this so quietly that anyone who wasn't a full Saiya-jin (or a Namek-jin) would not have heard him.  
  
There was nothing else Goku could do but let it go for the moment. "Okay, but I'm not going to let you get away with not talking about it."  
  
Vegeta slowly turned around to face him. "If you  _weren't_  persistent I don't believe I would be able to recognize you." Goku smiled at him which, miraculously, caused the former prince to smile back. Sort of. Their moment was interrupted by the sound of people entering the kitchen.  
  
"Time for something to eat," Bura announced. She was wearing a set of pink pajamas with tiny red hearts all over them while her husband was wearing a pair of plain gray pajama pants and a gray t-shirt. "Did the caterers provide that, too?"  
  
"Yeah, I think so. It's better than everyone fending for themselves unless they really want to." Vegeta opened the fridge and began to pull things out of it, Goku standing right beside him. They brushed hands several times while reaching for the same item, which caused both of them to blush faintly.  
  
Though Liam was oblivious to the reaction that the two Saiya-jin were having to each other, Bura was definitely not. She took note of it in the very same way she'd taken note of Trunks going out of his way to avoid having to interact with Goten. It was not the time nor the place to discuss it, but she knew the right time would come soon.  
  
"Did you see what Mishiko did?" she asked instead. Her brother's girlfriend really made her angry. She could see the obvious favoritism she showed Maiya as if Anastasia was less important as a person because she wasn't her biological child. "Ana's bleeding all over the place, but did she even take the time to ask her if she was okay? NO!"  
  
"Well, she was obviously  _not_  okay, sweetheart," Liam pointed out.  
  
"I  _know_  that, but she still should have asked. Instead, she runs straight to Maiya who was only crying. Even I took the time to check on Ana before going to check on Geoff and I don't live with her."  
  
Goku kicked the fridge door shut with his foot (his hands were way too full of food) and went to join everyone at the table. "Imagine how she's making Ana feel. Kids are really perceptive, you know. She probably knows that Mishiko doesn't really care about her."  
  
"That's why I told Trunks to break up with the bitch," Vegeta said. "Besides, he doesn't love her anyway."  
  
Bura's ears perked up. "Who does he love, then, Papa?" Vegeta shrugged and continued to eat. "I know you know or you wouldn't have mentioned it at all. Is is Pan?"  
  
Goku choked on the food in his mouth while Vegeta started to laugh. " _Pan_? Where did you get  _that_  idea from?"  
  
"Then he's not in love with her?"  
  
"He better not be!" Goku said with feeling.  
  
Her father smirked and glanced at Goku from the corner of his eye. "Let's just say that she's not the only Son around."  
  
Gasping, Bura's hands flew to her mouth. "He's in love with  _Goku-san_?!" Goku choked again.  
  
It was Vegeta's turn to be outraged. "He better not be!" Bura and Liam stared at him while Goku started to smile. He looked as if he was close to glomping him, so Vegeta quickly went on. "He's in love with Goten, Bura. Why is that such a difficult conclusion to reach?"  
  
She obviously still didn't get it. "If he's in love with Goten-kun, why is he avoiding him like he's a plague carrier?"  
  
"You have to ask  _him_  that. Few things that brat does make sense."  
  
The four of them breakfasted in companionable silence, proving once and for all that the mood of Christmas hadn't been ruined by Anastasia's accident. Vegeta even kept disparaging comments to himself. Mostly. At least he didn't torment Liam as often as he had two days before.  
  
"Where is everyone else?" Goku asked as he deposited his dirty dishes into the same sink that contained the evil knife.  
  
"Probably went back to sleep," Bura said. "But the kids... Who's watching the kids?!" In an instant she was up and running off to the family room to check on the well-being of her son and her niece. Liam was only a step behind her with the two Saiya-jin bringing up the rear.  
  
Fortunately they found Buruma in the room reading a book and the kids playing quietly near the tree. "What's going on with you four?" she asked curiously. "Especially you, Vegeta. I don't think I've ever seen you worried about anything before."  
  
"We thought-" Bura began.  
  
"Nevermind what we thought," her father interrupted. He didn't want Buruma to find out that he actually cared about his *ugh*  _grandchildren_. She would taunt him about it for months.  
  
Vegeta dropped down onto the corner of the couch that was as far away from Buruma as he could get and switched on the television. Much to the surprise to all the adults present, Goku sat down beside him on an adjacent cushion. Then he proceeded to take the remote control right out of the surprised Saiya-jin's hands and turned to a cartoon channel.  
  
"No violent action movies with the kids present."  
  
It took a little while for him to recover the power of speech, but when he finally did it wasn't at all pretty. "Who the fuck are you to tell me what I can and cannot watch?"  
  
"Language, Vegeta," he scolded. Vegeta's face started to turn red from all of the violence that was welling up inside of him.  
  
"Uh, Goku-san..." Bura began but hesitated when she saw that her father was about three seconds from exploding. There was a delicate balance to be maintained, after all. She would do anything to avoid having the kids witness a classic Vegeta meltdown complete with a mushroom cloud.  
  
"It's okay," Goku said. Out of the sight of everyone else in the room, he gently took the smaller hand of the man sitting beside him. Vegeta's eyes widened and he immediately looked down. The expression on his face (a cross between wonder and perplexity) was very interesting. "Isn't it, Vegeta?"  
  
"Uh, yeah," he replied. He, again, was having a hard time finding words but for an entirely different reason. "Everything's fine."  
  
Bura and Liam let it go as is, but Buruma watched the two of them with a thoughtful expression. Apparently things were moving a lot faster than she had previously calculated.  
  
Her former estimated time frame for Vegeta giving in to his romantic feelings for Goku had been just shy of "never."  
  


***

  
When Trunks returned home with his daughter (who was now smiling and proudly displaying her bandaged finger to all who would stand still long enough), everyone else had arrived. Apparently a lot of emergencies cropped up around Christmastime which was why they'd had to wait their turn for nearly an hour and a half. After sending Ana upstairs to change out of her nightclothes, he spun around to confront Mishiko. "We need to talk," he said very quietly.  
  
"What?  _Now_?"  
  
"Hai, NOW!" He then stalked out of the room and into the kitchen. Mishiko followed, having no idea why Trunks was so angry. They left a roomful of people behind, most of whom shared Mishiko's confusion. There were four, however, who knew exactly what was going on.  
  
And those four went to listen at the door.  
  
"Mishiko, did it escape your notice this morning that Anastasia was practically bleeding to death?" His voice was very controlled as if he was just seconds away from yelling.  
  
"I-iie," she stuttered. "I just thought that everything was under control so I went to check on Maiya."  
  
"Let me ask you something. If  _Maiya_  had been bleeding and crying, would you have disregarded her if someone else was attending to her?"  
  
"Iie! Of course not! She's my daughter!"  
  
Outside in the hall, Bura and Vegeta both looked ready to run into the kitchen and beat the crap out of Mishiko. Liam and Goku, on the other hand, just looked shocked. They'd known that she played favorites, but had no idea that she would admit it so openly.  
  
They heard the sounds of Trunks stalking over to the other side of the kitchen, probably moving away from his now ex-girlfriend before he did something that she would probably take him to court over. "Did you ever neglect Ana when you were looking after her, Mishiko?" The eavesdroppers waited anxiously for the woman's response, but none came. "Answer me!"  
  
"M-maybe."  
  
For a long moment, all they could hear was tense silence.  
  
"Go in there and stop him from doing something stupid," Goku whispered to Vegeta. "If it was me, I know that I would be very angry to the point of being irrational."  
  
The small Saiya-jin looked at him in surprise, but then he thought about it. When it came to his children, Goku would do anything in his power to defend them -- including inflicting harm, or even death, upon thousands (if not millions) of people.  
  
"Fine," he replied, squeezing between Bura and the wall to push open the door of the kitchen.  
  
Mishiko was near the exit into the garden while Trunks was hovering near the fridge. Vegeta was tempted to just let Trunks loose on her, but knew that allowing a Saiya-jin (demi or otherwise) free reign on a ningen was a recipe for disaster. "Trunks, let it go. She'll leave right now and you can take care of this legally tomorrow."  
  
"Legally?" the young woman whimpered.  
  
"Unless you're going to allow Trunks to visit his daughter?"  
  
She nodded rapidly. "Of course. Of course. I don't want Maiya to grow up without knowing her otousan." The unspoken addition to that sentence was, "Or take her away from me like he took Anastasia away from Lia."  
  
"I'll bring Maiya home later," Trunks informed her. "Geoff is only going to be here a little while and she likes playing with him."  
  
"O-okay." Mishiko blinked rapidly, unshed tears pooling in her eyes. "I'm sorry we couldn't make this work, Trunks. I thought we were perfect for each other."  
  
Vegeta snorted, but Trunks merely nodded. "Sayonara, Mishiko."  
  
"Sayonara, Trunks." She then left the room with the intent of telling her daughter that she was going before declaring her relationship with Briefs Trunks over for good.  
  
Trunks closed his eyes and sank into a nearby chair. "I would have thought that I would be relieved. Instead, I'm stressed and tired."  
  
"Mishiko is an aggravating onna. Not as aggravating as Kakarotto's onna or your mother, but still in the same league."  
  
He quietly laughed. "Papa, can you do me a favor?"  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Can you make sure I'm left alone for a little while?"  
  
Vegeta nodded. "I'll guard this room with my very life."  
  
"Well, you don't have to go  _that_  far," he smiled. He spoke again when his father was nearly out of the door. "Oh, and Papa? Arigatou."  
  
"Don't mention it."  
  


***

  
When Mishiko left, gossip began to fly. When Bura, Goku, and Liam returned to the family room, they were bombarded with questions about what had happened between Trunks and his girlfriend. "Ex-girlfriend," Bura corrected helpfully.  
  
Buruma was shocked. "What happened this time? Did she snore? Did she always forget the fabric softener?" In her opinion, her son's reasons for breaking up with his girlfriends were just plain stupid.  
  
"Mishiko neglects Ana," Bura said fiercely to her mother in a voice hardly above a whisper.  
  
Rage-filled fire lit up Buruma's blue orbs. "That  _bitch_."  
  
"How about you learn to gather all of the facts before jumping to conclusions?" Her mother smiled sheepishly in response.  
  
Conversation flowed fast and furious between everyone. They discovered that Yamucha had finally proposed to Madoka, ending a 46 year life as a bachelor. When asked why he had waited so long, he responded with, "I hadn't found the right woman. No offense, Buruma."  
  
"None taken," she replied. Up until that moment, she'd been happy to know that she hadn't been the only one besides Kamesennin who was still single. Now she felt like a pathetic loser.  
  
"When are you going to finally tie the knot with Vegeta? He  _is_  the father of your children and you two  _have_  been living together for longer than I can remember." Expectant faces turned her way.  
  
Once, she had thought that the word "never" would not ever be applied to her own situation. Now she knew otherwise. "We're not compatible," she said sadly. "We never have been and we never will be. There's someone else in his life." That last part slipped out entirely on its own.  
  
There was a collective gasp of shock. "Who?!" ChiChi asked. "Who would like someone so- so-" In her opinion, there wasn't a word bad enough to describe Vegeta.  
  
Goku also had a little problem with sneaky words. "Me."  
  
" _You_?!" his wife said with derision. "You like everyone, a trait that I sincerely wish you didn't have."  
  
"Well, at the moment I don't like  _you_  very much. In fact, I haven't liked you for a very long time!" It felt cathartic to finally let out 44 years of suppressed anger. He didn't even care that he was acting "out of character." Gohan was horrified to hear his father speak that way about anyone (especially in front of witnesses). Goten, on the other hand, was fascinated. It was like watching a head-on collision. You know you should look away but just can't make your head obey your brain.  
  
Buruma knew then that the best thing to do was disband her holiday gathering as soon as possible. ChiChi was going to launch into one of her usual rants and that would ruin everyone's day. Better to send all of her guests off now before she had a chance to get started.  
  
"Well, it was nice having you all over here," she said with false cheer right as ChiChi opened her mouth. "I hope we can do this again next year." Left unspoken were the words "without ChiChi."  
  
So her guests began to gather up all of their things, some of them taking far longer than others since they had presents to take from beneath the tree. Bura was stuck at her mother's house for another day since her family's flight didn't leave until six p.m on the 26th. She wasn't  _too_  upset about it as there were some pretty interesting things happening within her family and extended family.  
  
On the sidewalk, ChiChi and Goku were arguing while everyone else looked on. Buruma wasn't close enough to hear any of the words until she heard the other woman scream, "YOU'RE IN LOVE WITH  _VEGETA_?!" loud enough for the entire neighborhood to overhear. The Briefs matriarch winced in sympathy and was happy that she wasn't any closer to the action.  
  
"You know," Bura commented, "that makes a weird kind of sense. Besides, with another Saiya-jin Papa can allow himself to let loose."  
  
"Bura!" Buruma exclaimed, her face red.  
  
"Nani? You know I'm telling the truth. He can break a normal ningen in half!"  
  
Her mind filled with images of Vegeta and Goku  _in flagrante delicto_  and they were very happy to be there. "I wonder if they'll let me take pictures," she murmured half to herself. It was now Bura's turn to be very embarrassed.  
  
Meanwhile, back inside the house, Trunks had finally left the kitchen and relieved his bodyguard of his duty. He had heard everyone depart and felt that it was finally safe to leave.  
  
Almost. "Trunks, can I speak with you?" The moment had finally arrived, there was no way that he could avoid it any longer. He looked up at Goten's face and nodded.  
  
"Sure."  
  
Goten'd had many fantasies about this moment and there were so many questions he needed to ask. However, only one emerged. "Why?"  
  
"You are my weakness," Trunks said frankly, "and I don't like feeling weak."  
  
"How am I- What are you talking about?" Confusion was a common emotion he associated with spending time with Briefs Trunks and he wondered how he could ever forget that. He knew that the other demi-Saiya-jin was smarter than he was and, unfortunately, Trunks knew it as well. He was always being cryptic and indecipherable as if he got off on making Goten feel like an idiot.  
  
Maybe he did.  
  
"I did everything I could to forget that I'd ever fallen in love with you, but you haunted me anyway. I'm tired of running away, Goten. I have to confront you for the sake of my sanity."  
  
"You fell in love- Is that why you-" It was very hard to form  _coherent_  sentences let alone complete ones. "Why did you run away in the first place?" At last, an entire thought.  
  
He sighed and turned partially away. "It's hard to believe the truth. You're a guy, Goten. I can't be in love with a guy."  
  
"Says who? And if they say you 'aren't allowed' then they don't matter. It's not like you can change how you feel about someone. Not easily, anyway."  
  
"Yeah, I've figured that out," he muttered moodily.  
  
"And you destroyed our friendship over something so- so-  _minor_!" He wanted to punch Trunks in the face but at the very same time he wanted to hug him and take his pain away. "Two years, Trunks! Two years of me agonizing over what I'd done to hurt you. Two years of you treating me like I was insignificant." His fists clenched at his sides. "I don't even know if I want to resume a relationship with a person who would so easily toss me aside like a spoiled child does a broken toy."  
  
"You have to!" Trunks' face betrayed how utterly destroyed he felt inside. "I've never stopped thinking about you, Goten. You are -- were -- my best friend. Every time something happened to me I wanted to pick up the phone and tell you about it. Sometimes, I even got halfway through your number before I realized that I'd cut myself off from you. Then I would drop the phone onto the table and try desperately not to cry."  
  
All of this outpouring of emotion was going against everything his father had taught him. He was making himself vulnerable to a person who had the power to break him entirely, but he didn't care. Trunks would gladly risk emotional instability (and not to mention life and limb) to have Son Goten back in his life once more.  
  
He was ready to cry right now. All of the recent drama with Mishiko made him realize something important: wasting his time on someone who wasn't Goten was pointless. More notably, relationships such as those brought with them pain that he found unnecessary.  
  
With Goten, however, any pain he endured he would do so gladly. As long as they could be together.  
  
But wait, there was one little question that really needed to be addressed before they went any further. "Goten, do you even like men in a 'more-than-friends' capacity?"  
  
He didn't see the fist coming. The next thing Trunks knew, his arm was stinging insistently. "Itai! Oi, Goten, that  _hurt_!"  
  
"I'm glad! How can you be so blind, you moron?" Goten's hands finally unclenched and descended upon his shoulders. "Trunks, I absolutely, positively love you in a 'more-than-friends' capacity. I want to spend the rest of my life with you and help you raise your children." His fingers tightened so that they were digging into the soft flesh of the other young man's shoulders. Trunks opened his mouth to protest but it died when he saw the slightly scary look on Goten's face. "But if you ever,  _ever_  put me through anything remotely like this again, I will cut off your balls and feed them to you. Am I making myself clear?"  
  
"Crystal," he gulped.  
  
"Good." Goten wrapped his arms around his neck and gave him a hug. While Trunks was suitably distracted, he opened the door of the nearby coat closet and then stepped inside of it, dragging Trunks along with him. He then reached around and closed the door, trapping them in its dark, narrow confines.  
  
"I'm not ready for the world to know," was his explanation. "This is  _our_  time."  
  
Trunks smiled against his mouth. "I like the sound of that."  
  
While they still had plenty to discuss, both felt that it could take a temporary backseat to a heartfelt (and full contact) reunion.  
  
"Trunks, is that a zucchini in your pants or are you just very happy to see me?"  
  
Oh yeah, definitely.  
  


**~Owari~**

  
  
Buruma and Bura returned to the house after everyone had finally left the property. "Bura, if I honestly think that having a Christmas party is a good idea next year, I want you to do everything in your power to stop me, okay?"  
  
"Sure, 'kaasan."  
  
They were almost to the family room when they heard it. Strange noises were coming from the coat closet, noises that sounded uncomfortably familiar. Exchanging glances, they crept over and pressed their ears against the wooden door.  
  
"Oh yeah, right there Goten!"  
  
An animalistic growl, and then, "Oh, Kami, you are so fucking tight!"  
  
For a long moment, silence reigned supreme. Then Bura started to laugh loudly before she slapped her hands over her mouth to muffle the sound. Not that the occupants of the closet were likely to hear her over the sounds of their copulation.  
  
"I never thought Trunks would be uke," she whispered, her eyes squinched up with the effort it took not to explode into uncontrollable giggles.  
  
" _I_  never wanted to hear my son having sex." Buruma marched off determinedly to the kitchen to pour herself a stiff drink. She had a feeling that she would need to be at least a little drunk to handle the rest of what was proving to be a very long and difficult day.  
  
Maybe she should use some of the vacation time she'd been hoarding since Bura was in middle school.  
  
"FUCK ME HARDER, GOTEN!"  
  
Oh yeah, definitely.  
  


  
**~Owari~**  
(for real this time)

 

**Author's Note:**

> *Licca dolls are sort of like Japanese Barbie dolls


End file.
